On DaAn road, where the top cuisines in Taipei battle, lies a small restaurant that is always fully seated during lunch hour. Run by a young couple that met in Korea, the two of them decided to bring this Korean dish back to Taiwan. The dish originates from the era after the Korean war, when the economy was in a depression. Housewives had to figure out how to feed a whole family with just one chicken, which led to the invention of this dish.

The star of the restaurant’s signature dish is the whole chicken, submerged in a pot of soup with scallions, rice cake, potatoes and king oyster mushrooms complimenting the broth. The chef also recommends adding chili dipping sauces, ground garlic, and or kimchi into the pot. The chef then cuts the chicken into pieces and lets the chicken soak in the soup for 8-10 minutes, then it is ready.

For the optimal taste and texture, the shop uses chickens that are three months old. This makes the chicken very tender and soft. Jason, our fellow creative writer thinks that the dish lacks the use of alcohol and ginger to reduce the smell of meat. Jason recommends letting the chicken boil in the broth for a little longer to help with masking the smell. The tenderness of the meat wouldn’t take much of a hit since the chicken is so tender to begin with.

The restaurant provides an appetizer of sweet chili, leek, cabbage, and garlic dipped in sauce, providing a very different eating experience, and changing the taste of the meal. The sweet chili appetizer isn’t spicy but rather fruity and sweet like bell peppers; rather than taking after most other Korean cuisines by simply providing different levels of spiciness, Chicken One adds a crisp and refreshing new taste.

Writer’s conclusion:

This restaurant, named after the “Kong Ling” area in Korea, appeals to customers’ curiosity when they see the “whole chicken” part of the store name. The whole process of serving the dish, bringing the pot to the table and seeing the whole chicken being cut apart, creates a lot of discussion that can lead to word-of-mouth promotion. Another dish that they serve creatively combines the local Taiwanese porridge and a type of egg porridge, effectively differentiating themselves from the competition.

With two years of experience in the Taiwan market, and the store currently employing 25 part-timers, the owners have also expressed plans in opening a sister store. Jason says the restaurant is currently in a stable growth phase, and with it’s uniqueness, is a good role model for modern creative cuisine.